


All Things Bright and Beautiful

by st_aurafina



Category: Twin Peaks
Genre: Community: three weeks for dw, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-06
Updated: 2010-06-06
Packaged: 2017-10-09 22:55:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/92483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/st_aurafina/pseuds/st_aurafina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dale has something he'd like to ask of Albert.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Things Bright and Beautiful

**Author's Note:**

> Written for fic_on_demand's First Kiss meme.

Albert is the last person left in the Entomology Lab, a solitary figure in the darkness keeping watch over an incubator.

Dale doesn't need to announce himself; his shoes are new and they squeak on the linoleum. Albert has been mocking him all week. He stands beside Albert, looking down on a glass tank. In the cool air of the lab, the dirt is steaming slightly and Dale wonders what is sleeping under that blanket of earth.

"_Lucillia Caesar_, the common greenbottle." Albert follows Dale's train of thought easily.

"You know, Albert, they will hatch without your watchful gaze. There's a saying around these parts; the main character is a kettle and it never boils."

"Agent Cooper, _Lucillia_ is the first mourner to call upon a dead body. While our victim lay cooling in the damp grass, the mothers who spawned these pupae were with her. Their next generation cast off their skins again and again over the next week, but did not abandon her. They were carried with her to our labs where it was my responsibility to collect them, measure their pupation period and determine exact time of death. These pupae are time capsules; they connect us to that girl's experience of violence and solitude. I will not stand down." He makes a minute adjustment to the heat lamp warming the tank then speaks again in a low voice. "The cleaning staff are imbeciles. They'd unplug a refrigerator to run a damn floor buffer."

Dale nods. There is peace in Albert's uncompromising dedication; a compassion for the victim that few agents are able to see. Dale turns with a squeal of shoe leather and looks at the illuminated face of his friend.

"Albert, I would like to ask you something."

Albert frowns and looks away from the tank. "Are you asking permission to ask a question? Redundancy is pointless, Agent Cooper."

Albert is right: the question itself is pointless. Dale presses his lips against Albert's. Albert frowns then slides two fingers against Dale's jaw to correctly align their mouths. Behind them, the earth rolls as new life boils forth from death.


End file.
